3 robbers die in fire exchange with police

Source: Daily Graphic

The police in Kumasi have shot dead three more suspected armed robbers in two separate incidents, hours after one other was killed in a bank robbery at Fumesua.

Two of the latest suspects, who were carrying a number of items including a Holy Bible, were killed at Ampabame, near Boankra on the Kumasi-Accra highway, while the other, said to be part of the gang involved in the Fumesua bank robbery, was gunned down at Duase, a suburb of Kumasi.

Their identities were not revealed and their bodies have been deposited at the morgue of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

Briefing journalists, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Simon Afeku, said in the incident in which two robbers were killed, the Asokwa police in Kumasi worked in collaboration with the Buffalo Unit on Tuesday night to foil a robbery attempt.

He said acting on an intelligence report that the suspected robbers were planning to rob a businessman in Accra, the police erected a roadblock at Ampabame.

At about 11.30 p.m., the robbers, on board a taxi, pulled up at the checkpoint but refused police signal to stop.

They rather drove through the barrier in an attempt to escape.

Mr Afeku stated that the police gave the taxi a chase and on realising they were closing in on them, the armed men opened fire on the police.

The police, according to the deputy regional commander, returned fire and two of the suspects were killed on the spot while one managed to escape.

Among items found in the car were three locally manufactured pistols, a bunch of keys, two knives, 16 live BB cartridges, four empty cartridges, a wallet, two hoods, a hat, a Holy Bible and a voter ID card bearing the name Faustina Achiaa.

In the other incident, one more suspect in the Juaben Rural Bank robbery was shot dead at about 6 p.m. in an uncompleted building at Duase on the Kumasi-Antoa road.

Mr Afeku said the police had information that the robber was hiding in the building and, therefore, proceeded to the area.

On seeing the police, the suspected robber opened fire at them, which forced the police to return fire resulting in his death.

A machete, as well as a pistol pellet, was retrieved at the scene, the deputy police chief said.